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"After a week of changing my mind one way and another, I decided that if I didn't give it a go I could regret it for the rest of my life. Like Ian Rush before me, the plan was that I could always come back (well that was my plan!)"

Owen never went back to Liverpool and while he regrets not having a second spell at the Merseyside club, he looks back at his time at the Bernabeu fondly.

"It was a season I will never forget," he added. "A great experience both on and off the field. Wearing that famous white kit, strutting my stuff at an iconic stadium and sharing a pitch with the likes of Figo, Ronaldo, Beckham, Raul, Carlos and Zidane was the stuff of dreams.

"As I thought, I was able to adapt my game to a different style and playing 43 games and notching 19 goals in the process was a record to be proud of.

"The only drawback from my decision to head to Madrid was, that after a year in Spain, I didn't manage to rejoin my boyhood team."